Garmin’s 920XT: A Step Closer to Having It All

Garmin’s premier multisport GPS watch, the Forerunner 920XT, is now available to the public. We’ve had the chance to test the early samples for the past 8 weeks. It’s a big improvement over previous Garmin wearable multisport GPS devices, and sets the bar higher for all other brands of wearable GPS units.

The 920XT is a big step in the direction of convergence: one gadget to do it all. It incorporates the best features of Garmin’s dedicated devices for swimming, cycling, and running, and also includes an activity tracker for counting daily steps taken, calories burned, and hours of sleep. Advanced features such as running and cycling VO2 max estimation, running race-time predictor, and recovery-time estimation after a ride, to name just a few, have also been added. All of this data, when collected and analyzed, can provide athletes the ability to measure almost every aspect of an active lifestyle—and get a more informed picture of their training, recovery, and fitness.

The 920XT is a svelte article—it’s thinner, and feels lighter on my wrist, than any other full-featured GPS unit I’ve worn. And unlike any other wearable multisport GPS units, its display is full color. As the device is submersible in water, Garmin opted to have the user interact with the watch through six buttons, instead of a touchscreen. Since I have experience with other Garmin GPS units, I found the learning curve to be nearly non-existent for using the basic features on the 920XT. With the watch powered on, I was ready to go with the press of three buttons. Getting satellite reception took only a few seconds, also an improvement over previous wearable GPS units.

Connecting the 920XT to my Garmin Vector pedal-based power meter through ANT, was just as easy as doing so with my dedicated cycling computer. The 920XT even guided me through the calibration steps required by my power meter. Getting the watch to talk to my ANT+ heart rate monitor strap was another few presses of the buttons. After pairing the 920XT to my phone via Bluetooth, the GPS stayed connected to both my phone and my power meter via ANT+ simultaneously. This is a big improvement by Garmin over their other wearable GPS units, such as the Forerunner 620 and Fenix 2, which could not handle simultaneous connections with different signal types. Also, when connected to my phone, the 920XT displayed incoming text messages, app notifications, and contact names for incoming calls. (I could also disable this feature so as not to be interrupted mid-ride by Tweets—usually about riding or bikes.) When I got back from the ride I was able to connect the 920XT to my home WiFi network with the press of a button, then upload my ride data directly to my online training log on Garmin Connect and have it automatically cross-post my data to Strava.

Using the 920XT in the pool was simple. All I did was set the distance of the pool (GPS mode is disabled for pool swim mode) and press start, and the 920XT tracked my pacing. The color display was easy to read, even while wearing goggles. The 920XT also comes preconfigured with open-water swim mode, which enables the GPS reception, and registers course changes—say swimming around a buoy—rather than flip-turns at a wall.

Garmin

Group runs with the 920XT were a fun experience: I was always the first person to acquire satellite reception. The 920XT also comes preconfigured with an indoor running mode, which disables GPS reception. Unlike other GPS units when used indoors, the 920XT does not require a footpod to track distance; the 920 determines distance indoors through onboard sensors that track wrist and body movement.

I was most excited about riding with the 920XT. All of the features on my dedicated cycling computer are also available on this wearable GPS. I was able to easily create data pages to display the metrics I wanted with data provided by my power meter and heart rate monitor: current heart rate and zone, 10sec average power, power zone, %FTP, left/right power balance, time, speed, distance, and basically everything my Edge 510 does for me. The 920 allows between one and four metrics per page, and each mode (e.g., swim, bike, run) accommodates up to four pages.

Another feature on the 920XT, which I found to be really useful, is the ability to set audible, visual, or vibrating alerts. I set warnings for when I was going too hard on easy days, and too easy on hard days by setting the watch to vibrate when I was above and/or below my desired pace, heart rate, or watts. With vibration alerts enabled, I didn’t have to continually watch my screen—I could focus on the road.

In multisport mode, the 920XT records and displays all the sport-specific metrics for each discipline, as well as transition time. After pressing start, the unit goes into swim mode. Successive presses of the lap button indicate the start and end of the discrete swim, bike, and run segments, as well as the transitions between the three disciplines.

My experience with the 920XT’s battery life was much better than any other wearable GPS I’ve used. I had to charge the unit about twice per week when using it daily (for about four hours per day, with GPS, ANT+, and Bluetooth functionality enabled). The 920XT charges with a USB-enabled docking cradle, which is also used for data transfers and making firmware updates to the watch.

Additional configuration of the 920XT, when connected via USB to a computer, is available through the Garmin Connect web site. And, the Forerunner 920XT is the first Garmin device that can take advantage of Garmin Connect IQ, which will be available in early 2015. Garmin says this functionality will allow the user to personalize the watch by designing metrics for sports other than swim/bike/run, build customized apps, and load them onto the watch.

The Garmin Forerunner 920XT is available for $450, in two color combinations—red/white and blue/black—and is in stores now.

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